


Little Shop of Lawyers

by mouthcave



Category: Little Shop of Horrors, 逆転裁判 | Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Ace Attorney AU, Drug Use, F/F, Florist AU, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Minor Character Death, Recovery, Self-Harm, Slow Build, klavier gavin / apollo justice, no one is straight
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 15:11:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7719619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mouthcave/pseuds/mouthcave
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ace Attorney, Little Shop of Horrors au<br/>Apollo Justice, a man with nothing to his name, was taken in as a child by Phoenix Wright, owner of a failing florist shop.  Despite constantly being degraded by his well-meaning but overbearing foster father, he stays at the shop over concern for his coworker, Klavier Gavin, who is trapped in an unhealthy relationship.   Apollo hopes he and Klavier can escape the poverty cycle of life downtown.  When he purchases a rare and unusual plant from his friend Clay, his luck starts to turn,  until care for the plant surpasses the norm, and he is forced to choose between his morals and he and his friends' livelihoods.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Shop of Lawyers

 

 

Apollo sank into his hand, joints aching from scrubbing shelves, floors, windows, and anything else Wright yelled out at him from the back of the Wright Anything Florist Shop.   Exhaustion made his eyelids droop like the wilted petals laying on the floor.  He knew it wouldn't be long before Wright's voice echoed through the tiny shop, insisting that he sweep the floors again.  It wasn't as if there were any customers to mind a bit of mess, and Apollo rather liked the way the muted red petals looked against the wooden floorboards.

 

 Instead of staring dejectedly at the door (useless, as it rarely opened) he could stare dejectedly at the floor and daydream that the rose petals weren't just waste from flowers, but rather splatters of blood on the ground.  In this much cooler, daydream life, Apollo was investigating a murder, and he wasn't sore from cleaning every inch of a floral shop, but rather from pursuing a suspect.

This daydream certainly worked with the visuals Apollo had access to, but too often he found himself imagining that his boss was the murder victim, and at that point the fun melted away and Apollo had to chastise himself for thinking such things.  

 

There weren't many glamorous, non-crime scene-like things to look at in the shop, but Apollo would have to make do without reference images, because it wasn't as if anyone was going to murder Phoenix Wright any time soon. 

 

There was one beautiful thing that would have been a good source of imagination, if Apollo could bring himself to think about it without becoming mortified, or at least-

 

A door was shut gently behind him, almost silently.  Apollo lifted his (already blushing) head, and did not need to turn to know that Klavier Gavin stood there. 

 

-or at least, be able to interact with the man as if he weren't disgustingly interested in him.  

 

Klavier Gavin, who had worked along Apollo for years.  At first, Apollo had been infuriated by his beauty. Now, he was distressed by it.  Klavier made the flowers duller, with the way he glimmered about, and he acted like he didn't even know it.  Always apologizing for the smallest of mistakes, or for nothing at all.  He had the gentlest touch with everything, whereas Apollo always seemed to be knocking things over (and Klavier always shot up whenever he did, eyes wide, fixing Apollo's mistake before he can even register it.)  Apollo had no idea why he stayed at the run down florist's when he could be working anywhere, but it wasn't like Apollo was going to question it.  

 

Where Wright berated Apollo at every given chance, he beamed upon Klavier.  No matter how much he denied it, it had everything to do with Wright's bigshot boyfriend, who'd known Gavin since he was born, (or at least since before he met Wright.)  Bigshot boyfriend was nice enough, and Apollo couldn't find a way to resent him, but despite the fact that he was incredibly well-off (with a business up-town to boot) the Wright Anything Florists hadn't seen a penny of assistance.  He'd offered, he was that kind of man, but Wright had chuckled, run his hand across his ridiculously styled hair, and told him "we don't need any charity."  Bull.

 

Apollo wouldn't mind some charity about now.  Wright may have taken him in, but his chances on the street might have been better.  Maybe he'd have gotten a job with a florist who did take charity, and maybe they'd have gotten rich one day, and he'd be able to go to a real school, and learn something helpful, like how to be a doctor or a lawyer, or a real botanist.  Instead, he was stuck in this dead-end, failing florists shop on Skid Row, working with Klavier Gavin whose sparkling blue eyes were trained on him, as if waiting for the answer to a question.  (They were waiting, Apollo's Wright-hating internal monologue had prevented him from hearing it)

 

Apollo's cheeks went red. "Come again?"

 

"Oh, Apollo, liebling,  I'd hoped you weren't ignoring me to my face. I was asking if you wouldn't mind covering closing today?  I told Daryan the schedule forever ago, and well, I'm sure he _meant_ to remember, but he forgot that I was supposed to stay later today, and you know, he told me we're going out tonight.."  Klavier set his motorcycle helmet down on the counter.  He smiled tightly at Apollo and, teeth bared just a bit too much, flew right over the “hopeful grin” he was going for, instead landing in “grimace” territory.  A shiver ran down Apollo's spine.  Klavier's boyfriend.

 

"Yeah, Klavier.  I can cover closing." He assured.  

 

"Thank you, Apollo, I will make it up to you."  Apollo thought about Klavier's boyfriend again. His palms felt clammy.

 

 "Do you mind if I go pick up dinner? If Wright catches me sneaking out, he’ll mix me in with the fertilizer,  so I need a cover.”  Apollo asked.  Klavier grinned more sincerely.

 

“Ja, I can cover for you, Apollo!”  Klavier eagerly took Apollo’s place behind the counter.

 

“I’ll be back in a minute,” Apollo said, mentally hitting himself for watching Klavier tuck his hair behind his ear for a moment longer than was necessary.

He'd try to be back in a minute, but if it took him longer to stop thinking about  _Daryan_ with his  _motorcycle_ and his  _uncancelable dates_ , then so be it. 

 

* * *

 

The outside air was one of the few things that made it worth it to stay inside the florist shop.  At least indoors, the stuffy air smelled like roses and perfume.  Outside, the smell of smog and car exhaust was overpowering.

 

Two young girls leaned against the brick of an alleyway just beyond the shop.   As Apollo walked closer, he found his blush returning.  The two girls were kissing feverishly against the wall.  Apollo hurried to pass them, let youth be youth, but one of the girls made eye contact with him, and smiled, swinging her head so that her raven black ponytail flew up over her head.

With a moment of slight horror, Apollo realized that he knew her. 

 

“Apollo!” She called out, gently pushing her friend off of her.  She pulled her hiked-up skirt down  and smiled mischievously at Apollo.  

 

“Why aren’t you both in school, Kay?” Apollo asked accusingly, still recovering from his blush.  The adoptive daughter of big-shot boyfriend wasn’t a newcomer to this street, or any other, but Apollo still gave her hell for constantly cutting class.  Although normally, she didn't spend her days kissing girls in alleys.  Apollo was much more likely to find her making questionable financial decisions, or pick-pocketing the shears out of his pocket and threatening to cut his hair with them.  Nothing was a real surprise, but that didn't mean he had any interest in seeing his sort-of sister making out with someone in an alley during school hours.  

 

“Apollo, don’t be like that, you know school is a joke!” Kay laughed.

 

“Not all of it is, Kay!” her friend spoke out, pouting slightly.  Kay pressed a kiss to her cheek.

 

“Doll, I know you’re going to grow up to be the greatest forensic detective the world has ever seen, but I’m happy as I am.”   Her friend adjusted the pink-lensed glasses perched atop of her head.  “Apollo, this is Ema, future scientist extraordinaire.” Kay curtsied at Ema, who stuck her tongue out in return.

 

“Nice to meet you, Ema.  Don’t let Kay be a bad influence, she may have a rich father who can bail her out, but not everyone has that luxury.” Apollo frowned disapprovingly at the girl, who glowed pridefully.

 

“I don’t need his money, Justice. I never get caught.” the crowlike glint in her eye flared, and she pulled Ema’s glasses out of the folds of her scarf.  Ema rolled her eyes and snatched the glasses back, roughly replacing them on her head.

 

“Pick-pocketing isn’t a lifelong career, Kay.”

 

“One day I’ll steal Klavier Gavin right out from under your nose, Apollo.  Then we’ll see if you roll your eyes at me!”

 

Apollo blushed again.

“He’s not mine to steal, he’s not anyone’s.  Don’t be bothering him, Kay” Apollo pleaded.

 

“I won’t, Apollo, but I might just have to take that boyfriend of his’ motorcycle for a spin one day..” Apollo’s face flooded of color.  

 

“Kay, don’t go getting into more trouble than it’s worth. Seriously, get back to class.” Apollo gathered himself and nodded at Kay and Ema.  As he turned, he saw Ema pull Kay into another kiss.  He'd get her to go to school one of these days.

  


* * *

  


Apollo rushed along, grabbing food from a vendor.  If Wright realized he was gone..

 

He could see the shop up ahead, empty as usual.  No sweat off of his brow, he hadn't expected anything different.

 

“Pollo!” a familiar voice yelled out. He turned, and found himself facing the driver of his favorite cart in all of downtown.  

 

“Clay!” He greeted warmly, already scanning the goods his friend pushed.  Although Apollo hated working for a failing florist, he was constantly drawn to plants, and Clay always had a cart full of species the shop rarely offered.  Even Mr Wright was appreciative of Apollo’s hobby- cultivating weird plants- which on a few occasions brought in new customers.  Clay didn’t seem to have anything really interesting, but Apollo picked up a couple of samples anyways.

 

As Apollo searched through the clippings, the sky went dark.  The sun must have been fully eclipsed.  He couldn’t see the flower in his own hand, let alone the rest of the street.  Before he had a chance to panic, the sun must have come out again. The street lit up, and everything seemed to be exactly as it was.  He shook his head in confusion, Clay didn’t look distressed in the slightest.  A cloud must have passed over the sun, and in his sleep deprived state he thought it went pitch black when it was just a bit of shade.   

 

He looked back at the cart of samples, and his eyes went wide.  There, were it certainly hadn’t been before, was a fleshy, flytrap looking plant which he didn’t recognize at all.  It was so unusual, so interesting..  he had to purchase it for the shop.  If not for the shop, then for himself.  It was incredible..

 

“Clay, how much is that one, there?” He pointed at the intriguing plant.  He itched to hold it.

 

“Oh, uh, $1.99?”  Clay asked, sounding hopeful.   

 

“Sure!” Apollo scooped up the plant in one hand, and fished through his pockets, thrusting the cash at Clay.   

 

"Well now, I could have gone for a higher price than that!  I thought the thing looked odd and maybe it was sick or something."  Clay's brow furrowed.

 

"No take-backs, Clay" Apollo grinned.    "Next time you''ll make me pay top dollar, I know it."

 

He cupped the strange plant in his hand as he hurried back to the florist's, eager to pot the thing and nurture it.  Something about it made his heart beat faster, he knew that it was unique, like nothing else on this Earth.

 

“If that’s true, that means I get to name you.” He said, unabashedly addressing the plant.  A silly idea struck him.

An idea silly enough to brighten Klavier’s day,  as well as satisfy Apollo’s daily quota for self-deprecation.  A silly idea that Wright would roll his eyes at and Kay would tease him about for weeks.  Whatever.  It was silly, and it was something that Klavier's motorcycle riding boyfriend would never think of.

 

“You know what,  I’ll call you Gavin 2.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'll continue writing this if anyone enjoys it. So far it's just an introduction, but this is born from listening to the Little Shop soundtrack for hours and needing to write out my feelings in a relevant way. Thank you for reading, and hopefully there will be more!


End file.
